Diane and Clover left the next day.
Just as they had said they would, a portal opened at noon in front of the annex.
Silver light rippled through the air, humming softly with magic as it stretched into a doorway large enough for the two women.
Aurelia stared at it quietly.
It wasn’t just a portal.
It was a gateway out of her life.
The farewell was a solemn one that made her chest tighten and her eyes sting with unshed tears.
Diane was the first to hug her.
Her sister’s muscular arms wrapped tightly around her, warm against the northern cold.
Aurelia buried her face in her shoulder, holding on just a little longer than she should have.
She wasn’t ready to let go.
Clover soon joined them, pressing herself against Aurelia’s side until the three women stood in a silent embrace.
“This isn’t forever, Aurelia,” Clover murmured softly.
Aurelia didn’t answer.
That was a lie.
Maybe they believed it.
Maybe they wanted her to believe it too.
But she knew better.
Once they stepped through that portal, they would return to the isle, and the laws that governed their people would keep them there.
Priestesses devoted to the goddesses were not allowed to leave without permission, and Aurelia doubted permission would ever be granted again.
This was forever, whether any of them wanted to admit it or not.
They eventually pulled away from one another.
Diane wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, laughing awkwardly through the tears while Clover tried to smile despite the sadness written all over her face.
“You’d better take care of yourself,” Diane said.
“And stop picking fights,” Clover added.
Aurelia snorted quietly.
“No promises.”
The three of them laughed, but it was short-lived.
The moment had come.
Diane reached for Clover’s hand, and together they stepped towards the portal.
Before crossing through, they both looked back at her one last time.
They smiled through their tears and lifted a hand in farewell.
Then they were gone.
The silver light swallowed them whole before folding in on itself.
A second later, the portal disappeared as though it had never existed.
Silence settled over the annex.
Aurelia didn’t go back inside immediately.
She simply stood there, staring at the empty space where they had been only moments ago.
The cold wind brushed against her face, carrying away the last traces of magic that had lingered in the air.
This was it.
The last tether to home was gone.
For as long as she could remember, she had never truly been alone.
There had always been priestesses nagging, sisters laughing somewhere nearby, and the sound of the island life comforting her.
Now there was nothing.
No home.
No sisters.
No magic.
Only the North and it’s cold winds.
Her eyes slowly drifted to the still flat plane of her stomach.
Her hand hovered uncertainly before settling there, rubbing absentmindedly over the thick fabric of her dress.
Instead, they only made her heart feel heavier.
She turned to head back inside when a voice stopped her.
“Aurelia!”
She looked over her shoulder to see Darius making his way towards the annex.
The wind had tousled his brown hair, and snowflakes clung stubbornly to the shoulders of his dark coat.
He squinted against the falling snow as he jogged the last few steps towards her.
“Are they gone?” he asked, his breathing slightly uneven.
Aurelia simply nodded.
She wasn’t in the mood for a conversation.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
The wind whistled between them, carrying loose snow across the ground.
Darius shifted awkwardly where he stood before finally asking,
“Are you okay?”
Aurelia looked up to meet his brown eyes.
Was she okay?
Of course she wasn’t.
She hadn’t been okay for weeks.
She had lost her home, her magic, her family, and now it felt like she was slowly losing herself too.
Every morning she woke up somewhere she didn’t belong, surrounded by people who wished she would disappear.
The only thing she had left was the tiny life growing inside her.
She wanted to tell him all of that.
She wanted to scream it at him until he finally understood.
Instead, she said nothing.
Darius rubbed the back of his neck, looking almost uncomfortable beneath her silence.
“Don’t dwell on it for too long,” he said after a moment.
“You’ll see them again after you give birth.”
Aurelia’s chest tightened.
He really still thought she would go back to the isle once she gave birth?
That she still had a life after all this.
For a second, she considered telling him the truth.
That she had nowhere to return to.
That the portal had closed on the only home she would ever know.
But she was tired.
Too tired to explain herself to someone who had never really tried to understand her.
“I’m sure you mean well,” she said quietly, “but you’re terrible at comforting people.”
A faint look of embarrassment crossed his face.
“I was just trying to help.”
“I know.” She sighed.
“Did you want something?”
Darius hesitated.
“Oh…
not really.
I…
just wanted to check on you.”
The answer surprised her more than she cared to admit.
Still…
“If you have nothing else to say,” she replied, forcing her expression back into its usual calmness, “I’d like to be left alone.”
She didn’t wait for an answer.
___
Darius emptied the glass of whiskey the moment he stepped into his study.
The liquor burned all the way down his throat, but it didn’t ease the pounding in his head.
She had slammed the door in his face again.
He had gone there trying to be nice, trying to make sure she was alright after watching her sisters leave, and somehow he had still managed to make things worse.
Aurelia was upset.
He knew it.
He could feel it somewhere deep inside him, a sadness that wasn’t his yet somehow weighed on his chest all the same.
It was faint, almost like a distant ache, but it was there.
His grip tightened around the empty glass.
The stubborn witch would rather drink molten lava than admit something was bothering her.
A low whine echoed through his consciousness.
Kyle.
Darius closed his eyes.
“What?” he muttered under his breath.
His wolf didn’t answer.
Another miserable whimper reached him before silence settled once again.
Darius almost scoffed.
His wolf had been just as unbearable as Aurelia these past few days.
The pair of them had apparently decided he was the villain.
He rubbed at his brows before reaching for the whiskey bottle again, only for the sound of the study door opening to make him pause.
He didn’t need to look up.
The soft scent of flowers drifted into the room before she did.
Elena.
“I spoke to the warriors about the granaries,” she said as she walked towards his desk.
Darius finally looked up to meet her eyes.
“Yes.
Nathan told me.” He set the glass aside and straightened.
“Did you bring the ledger?”
She nodded, placing the thick brown book in front of him.
“I’ve already gone through last season’s harvest and marked the losses.”
He opened the ledger, his eyes immediately scanning the neat columns of figures and notes.
Elena had always been meticulous with records.
It was one of the reasons negotiations with Frisk’s pack had gone so smoothly over the years.
Without looking up, he spoke.
“Have a maid assigned to the annex.”
Elena paused.
“A maid?”
He nodded, still turning the pages.
“The place is bigger than I thought.
She’ll need someone to help around the house.”
For the briefest moment, Elena’s smile faltered.
Only for a heartbeat.
Then it returned.
“Of course.”
Darius didn’t notice.
His attention had already returned to the numbers spread across the page.
He never saw the way her fingers slowly tightened around the edge of the desk before she quietly excused herself.
The study door closed with barely a sound.
Only then did the smile disappear from Elena’s face.